Loan Market Richmond

Loan Market Richmond Mortgage Broker in Richmond and Penrith NSW, specialising in home loans, refinancing and first home buyer finance. Led by Beau Cook.

Serving Western Sydney and surrounding suburbs. I am your local mortgage broker, specialising in residential, personal and business finance in Penrith and surrounding suburbs. Reach out today for your free, no-obligation chat (or get started online) and let me do the legwork for you. If you'd like more information about the expertise a Mortgage broker can bring to the table, let's connect! Get Sta

rted Online: https://my.loanmarket.com.au/fa38f6cd-a719-4ac1-a7fa-40ab6b7132f5 #/get-started

Home purchasing
Refinancing
Loan applications
Home loans
First home buyers
Investment loans
Repricing
Next home loan
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✉ [email protected]
💡 Learn more: loanmarket.com.au/beau-cook

08/09/2026

Your building & pest inspection is done. Does that mean someone's checked everything in the house?

Don't assume so.

The scope of a building & pest inspection can vary between inspectors, so one of the simplest things you can do is ask your inspector exactly what they do and don't check.

Their inspection will generally focus on the condition of the property, defects and pest-related issues, but that doesn't mean you should automatically assume things like appliances, taps, air-conditioning and other fixtures have all been tested for you.

That's also why your own inspections are important.

Before settlement, buyers will generally have an opportunity to complete a final inspection of the property.

Have a proper look around.

Turn things on. Run the taps. Check appliances and anything else you're expecting to be there and working when you get the keys.

You're also checking that the property is in substantially the same condition as when you agreed to purchase it.

If something isn't right, raise it with your conveyancer or solicitor quickly so they can advise you on what happens next.

There was another good bit of advice in this conversation too:

If you've got the opportunity to attend your building & pest inspection, particularly as a first home buyer, go along.

Those reports can be incredibly detailed. If you don't know much about buildings, reading pages of defects, cracking, moisture and maintenance issues can make a house sound like it's about to collapse.

Seeing the issue in person and having the inspector explain what they've actually found can give you much better context.

Don't just get the inspection done. Understand what was inspected and what they found.

07/09/2026

You've gone unconditional on your purchase. What happens now?

Strangely enough, not a whole lot.

Getting to unconditional is where most of the work happens.

You've found the property, negotiated the purchase, sorted your finance and worked through the contract and whatever conditions or inspections were required.

Then you might have another four weeks before settlement where everything suddenly goes pretty quiet.

There are still a few important jobs.

Make sure your insurance is appropriately sorted. Your lender will likely want to see this prior to settlement.

If you're contributing additional funds towards the purchase, make sure you know exactly where those funds need to be and when they need to be there.

Depending on how your settlement is being handled, you might need the settlement shortfall sitting in a particular account for your lender to draw from. In other circumstances, your conveyancer or solicitor may ask you to transfer the funds into their trust account.

Either way, that's a conversation worth having well before settlement morning.

Your agent will generally keep in contact with both sides during this period and shortly before settlement you'll normally get an opportunity to complete a final inspection.

That's your chance to make sure the property is in substantially the same condition as when you purchased it and check that anything agreed to as part of the sale has been dealt with.

Otherwise?

Organise the move. Start packing. Work out where the couch is going.

And wait for settlement day.

Once settlement goes through, the agent can release the keys and you're done.

06/09/2026

Are mortgagee sales actually a good place to pick up a bargain?

There's a pretty common assumption about these properties:

The bank has taken possession. They just want to recover whatever they're owed, sell the place quickly and move on.

But that's not really how it works.

In NSW, when a mortgagee exercises its power of sale, it has a legal obligation to take reasonable care to ensure the property sells for at least its market value where that value can be established or otherwise the best price reasonably obtainable in the circumstances.

The agent in this conversation has actually been through the process from the selling side.

He was approached by the lender to appraise the property. The lender also obtained an independent valuation and looked at comparable sales before settling on the campaign price.

And then something interesting happened.

Buyers came through assuming the lender would want a quick sale. Offers came in below the asking price on the assumption that the bank might just take the money and move on.

They were rejected.

Eventually the market shifted, the price was adjusted and the property sold. The lender was prepared to respond to genuine market feedback but it wasn't simply looking to recover its debt as quickly as possible.

So if you see “mortgagee in possession” on a listing, don't automatically assume you've found a distressed sale at a distressed price.

You can still negotiate like you would with any property.

Just don't expect the lender to hand you a bargain because it only needs enough money to clear the mortgage.

05/09/2026

A pre-approval should be more than a number.

This came up in our conversation from an interesting perspective.

For an agent, an educated buyer is generally in a much better position when they find a property they want.

They know roughly what they can spend.

But more importantly, they understand what they're actually supposed to do next.

Can I make an offer?

If it's accepted, what happens then?

What's a cooling-off period?

When should my conveyancer review the contract?

Does my lender still need to approve the property?

When do I need formal finance approval?

What happens with the deposit?

These aren't particularly complicated questions once someone has explained them to you.

But trying to learn all of it while an agent is telling you there are three other interested buyers isn't ideal.

And property doesn't conveniently operate Monday to Friday during business hours. Open homes happen on weekends, negotiations happen after work and sometimes a question pops into your head that suddenly gives you that knot in your stomach.

That's why I don't think getting someone ready to buy ends when their pre-approval comes through.

Whether you use a broker or deal directly with a bank, I'd want the person helping with the finance to make sure you understand what comes next.

Not just pre-approved. Prepared to actually buy.

04/09/2026

If you're thinking about selling your home, get three agents out.

Particularly if you've never sold before or it's been a long time since you've gone through the process.

It gives you the opportunity to compare their fees, strategy, availability, approach to negotiation and experience selling properties like yours.

But there's another reason I think getting a few opinions is worthwhile:

The highest appraisal isn't necessarily the best appraisal.

We occasionally see an agent give a vendor a really exciting number for their property. Naturally, the vendor gets excited about what their home might be worth and decides to list with them.

Then the property hits the market.

A few weeks go by, buyer feedback isn't supporting the price and suddenly the conversations start about adjusting expectations and reducing the asking price.

That doesn't automatically mean the agent did anything wrong. Property isn't an exact science and ultimately the market decides what someone's prepared to pay.

But rather than simply comparing the three numbers you're given, ask each agent:

How did you arrive at that number?

What comparable properties have actually sold?

What's your strategy for achieving it?

How are you going to market the property?

How do you handle negotiations?

Can you show me examples of similar properties you've sold?

And then there's the less measurable part, who do you actually trust and connect with?

You're handing someone the responsibility of selling what is probably one of your biggest assets.

Don't necessarily choose the agent who tells you the number you like most. Choose the one who can explain their number.

This is pretty cool.Settled a stack of loans last financial year for people all over Australia and somehow finished with...
03/09/2026

This is pretty cool.

Settled a stack of loans last financial year for people all over Australia and somehow finished with a +100 customer satisfaction score.

+100 is the highest NPS score you can get, which basically means every client who completed the survey rated us highly enough to be considered a promoter and anyone that didn't love us didn't hate us enough to smash our rating 🥳

We definitely don't get everything right, but we care a lot about doing a good job for people.

Pretty proud of our little team.

01/09/2026

Completely understandable concern.

But it's also one of the reasons people can end up putting themselves under unnecessary pressure.

Selling first doesn't mean you necessarily need to settle the sale, move out and then start looking for another house.

You can sell with a long settlement.

That gives you time to go and find your next property knowing your existing home is already sold, how much it's sold for and therefore exactly what you're working with for the next purchase.

There's also a really useful bit of contract structuring that people often aren't aware of.

Your conveyancer can look at including a clause in your sale contract that allows you to bring the settlement date forward by giving the purchaser notice, often something like two weeks.

So you might initially negotiate a long settlement to give yourself plenty of breathing room.

Then you find the next property.

You negotiate your purchase and cooling-off period, complete your pest and building inspection and other checks and then your conveyancer works with everyone involved to line the two settlements up.

In most normal transactions, lining up a sale and purchase settlement is very achievable.

Compare that with buying first.

You've now committed to another property and suddenly your existing home has to sell. If it takes longer than expected or the offers aren't where you need them to be, you've created pressure that didn't need to exist.

There are circumstances where buying first or using bridging finance makes sense as well but they're not the only options.

31/08/2026

What happens when your pest and building inspection finds something wrong?

Probably the first thing to understand is that finding "something" is pretty normal.

As Shannon Cooney puts it in this chat, you could almost describe a pest and building inspection as a “fault-finding report”. Its job is to identify issues ranging from basic maintenance right through to termites, structural problems and major defects.

Not everything on the report should carry the same weight.

Sometimes the vendor is finding out about the problem at the same time as the buyer.

A vendor can prepare their property before sale and fix everything they're aware of, but nobody necessarily knows what's happening behind a wall or underneath part of the house until someone investigates it.

So what happens when something significant is found?

It depends on the issue and the circumstances.

During a cooling-off period, buyers will commonly discuss the report with their solicitor or conveyancer and work out what they're comfortable with.

That can lead to further investigation, a request for something to be rectified or potentially a negotiation with the vendor.

The important thing is not treating every line of a pest and building report like the house is about to fall over.

Understand what you've found, get the right advice and then decide what you're comfortable with.

30/08/2026

How hard are banks actually looking at your expenses?

Probably differently to how a lot of people imagine.

Living expenses absolutely form part of a home loan assessment, but it isn't necessarily a case of someone at the bank going through your statements and judging every coffee, dinner or Uber Eats order.

We're looking at the bigger picture.

Someone might not be saving an enormous amount each month, but they're currently paying significant rent. Once they buy, that rent disappears and is replaced by their mortgage.

Someone else might have personal loans that are going to be paid out as part of the purchase.

And refinances are another interesting example.

We often see existing homeowners spending more of their disposable income than first home buyers. That makes sense. They're not necessarily saving towards a deposit anymore and they've already demonstrated that they can comfortably make their mortgage repayments.

If we're refinancing that person and reducing their repayments, their existing spending doesn't suddenly mean the refinance doesn't make sense.

That's why context matters.

Banks understand that the way you spend money without a mortgage, or with a more expensive mortgage, isn't necessarily exactly how you'll spend it afterwards.

Your expenses still need to be declared accurately and they absolutely matter to borrowing capacity.

But getting takeaway isn't usually the issue.

The overall financial position needs to make sense.

P.S. If you're a first home buyer, Mel is running a free webinar on Tuesday 1 September at 8:00pm covering the different first home buyer schemes, who they're designed for and how they work. If you've been trying to make sense of them, it'll be well worth joining. Link to register in the comments.

28/08/2026

$0 owing on your credit card doesn't necessarily mean the bank ignores it.

When lenders assess how much you can borrow, they'll generally look at the limit available on your credit card, rather than simply the balance you've got owing today.

So if you've got a $15,000 card with nothing owing, the lender still needs to consider that you could potentially use that $15,000 tomorrow. Pay your card off every month? Same treatment.

That will affect your borrowing power.

But this is also why I don't love the blanket advice of “close all your credit cards before applying for a home loan.”

Sometimes reducing or closing a card can make a significant difference to how much you can borrow.

Other times it makes absolutely very little difference to the outcome and you've closed a facility you were perfectly happy to keep.

Run the numbers first.

If the credit card is actually preventing you from borrowing what you need, you can then decide whether reducing or closing it makes sense.

P.S. If you're a first home buyer, Mel is running a free webinar on Tuesday 1 September at 8:00pm covering the different first home buyer schemes, who they're designed for and how they work. If you've been trying to make sense of them, it'll be well worth joining. Link to register in the comments.

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Penrith, NSW

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